DEVINE — On this small the town of a couple of thousand other folks southwest of San Antonio, Tomas Ramirez III spent a decadeslong regulation profession strolling his shoppers via an array of prison procedures — indictments, arrests, arraignments — as they jointly confronted a variety of legal fees.

Ramirez by no means imagined he’d get involved in the similar legal justice machine he helped his shoppers navigate. Till a sergeant investigator within the Texas legal professional normal’s place of job referred to as him in February 2021.

The state legitimate advised Ramirez, who via then was once a justice of the peace in Medina County, that Republican Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton’s place of job was once pursuing legal election fraud fees in opposition to him. An indictment accused Ramirez of illegally possessing absentee ballots of 17 citizens throughout the 2018 GOP number one by which he toppled a Republican incumbent via just about 100 votes. 3 others have been additionally accused within the case.

Ramirez mentioned he by no means had any voter’s absentee ballots. The indictment didn’t give an explanation for how the alleged scheme labored or the function Ramirez was once accused of enjoying. Ramirez, who denies committing any election crime, mentioned the alleged scheme was once by no means defined. The legal professional normal’s place of job didn’t reply to questions on the way it alleges Ramirez harvested votes.

To Ramirez, the indictment was once ludicrous.

“No person runs a poll harvesting operation for 17 votes. Seventeen-hundred votes? OK, I am getting it. Possibly even 200 votes, however 17? Give me a ruin. , that’s simply silly,” Ramirez mentioned in a contemporary interview. “There’s no means I’m gonna gamble away my skill to fortify my circle of relatives to win 17 votes.”

Paxton’s place of job has now not spoke back to requests for remark for this tale.

The case was once amongst more or less 100 election-related legal circumstances that Paxton’s place of job has pursued up to now 5 years as a part of a campaign to protect voter integrity. Election fraud stays extraordinarily uncommon in Texas, and Paxton has been closely criticized for making false accusations concerning the 2020 presidential election.

Paxton has vocally and publicly touted the ratings of investigations and legal fees, pointing to them as proof that Texans are seeking to illegally decide the end result of elections. His place of job’s election integrity unit tracks the choice of fees which have been effectively prosecuted, the choice of pending fees and the choice of energetic investigations within the state. Paxton has discussed the figures in a lot of speeches and information releases.

“Many proceed to say that there’s no such factor as election fraud. We’ve at all times identified that any such declare is fake and deceptive, and as of late we have now further exhausting proof,” Paxton mentioned in a remark saying the arrest of a girl a month prior to Ramirez was once indicted. “I’m fiercely dedicated to making sure the vote casting procedure is protected and truthful all through the state, and my place of job is ready to lend a hand any Texas county in preventing this insidious, un-American type of fraud.”

However in the back of the scenes, a number of of the circumstances have quietly unraveled for the reason that state’s perfect legal court docket dominated that the Texas Charter’s stability of powers forbids the legal professional normal — an elected member of the manager department — to unilaterally pursue legal fees that wend throughout the judicial machine.

“The unconstitutional use of the AG’s energy has upended the lifetime of Texans via subjecting them to unnecessary arrest, the trauma of prison time, misplaced time at paintings and with their households,” mentioned Savannah Kumar, an legal professional on the ACLU of Texas. “The legal professional normal’s process is to facilitate vote casting, now not squash the power of present and possible citizens.”

Ramirez is amongst no less than seven other folks — jointly accused of committing 152 offenses of election fraud — whose circumstances were disregarded or are expecting dismissal because of the new court docket discovering, in line with information from Paxton’s place of job.

But that provides Ramirez little sense of vindication. Ever since that February 2021 telephone name — and in spite of the prison limitations that Paxton’s place of job faces — the state’s attorneys have attempted a lot of techniques to make sure Ramirez is prosecuted. And even if he hasn’t been convicted, Ramirez says a lot harm has already been accomplished.

Rallying round election-fraud myths

Since 2005, the legal professional normal’s place of job has effectively prosecuted 155 folks for election fraud. That comes with crimes by which other folks have been convicted of vote casting illegally, forging signatures and vote casting as a noncitizen. For reference, roughly 8.1 million Texans voted in November’s midterm elections, in line with the secretary of state’s place of job.

Paxton is amongst most sensible Republicans nationally and in Texas who’ve stoked election-fraud myths for years. Amid Paxton’s crusade to prosecute Texans for vote casting crimes, his place of job screened the film “2000 Mules,” a movie via GOP political operative Dinesh D’Souza that falsely claims there was once important voter fraud throughout the 2020 presidential election — assertions which have been debunked.

The legal professional normal himself delivered a speech on the Jan. 6 pro-Donald Trump rally in Washington, D.C., that devolved right into a siege of the Capitol as Trump supporters interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Paxton additionally filed a lawsuit difficult the result of the 2020 election so as to have them overturned, however the U.S. Preferrred Courtroom briefly rejected the case.

“Our process is to make certain that the Charter is adopted and that each and every vote counts,” Paxton mentioned when the lawsuit was once filed. “On this case I’m really not certain each and every vote was once counted, now not in the precise means.”

His assertions within the lawsuit — aimed on the results in 4 battleground states — drew fashionable condemnation. In keeping with Paxton’s failed try to use the courts to overturn Biden’s win, the Texas state bar filed a certified misconduct lawsuit in opposition to the legal professional normal. It accuses Paxton of constructing “cheating” representations and failing to reveal that a few of his allegations had already been adjudicated or disregarded in courts.

Paxton denounced the lawsuit and banned attorneys in his place of job from talking at any occasions arranged via the State Bar of Texas.

“Numerous elected officers on this state have made up our minds that they are able to make political achieve via spreading conspiracy theories about elections,” mentioned James Slattery of the Texas Civil Rights Undertaking. “The sky hasn’t fallen, proper? There hasn’t been any surge in unlawful vote casting that’s been documented.”

Former Texas Secretary of State John Scott, the state’s most sensible election legitimate who as soon as represented former President Donald Trump in one of the most fits difficult the 2020 election, has mentioned Texas’ elections have been protected and protected. In a file launched in December, his place of job discovered some “irregularities” but in addition strengthened a message election professionals have time and again despatched: There was once no fashionable fraud within the 2020 election, and Texas citizens will also be assured that elections listed here are protected.

It was once on this better political atmosphere that Ramirez was once advised he was once an alleged legal accused of stealing votes. The day the legal professional normal’s place of job advised him concerning the indictment, he grew to become himself in to Bandera County government, was once launched on a private recognizance bond, employed attorneys and started an 18-month odyssey to transparent his identify.

A question of ready

In the meantime, every other case of election fraud was once running its means via state courts. Paxton’s place of job was once pursuing fees in opposition to Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens, the primary Black girl to be elected sheriff in Texas.

Paxton effectively sought an indictment in opposition to Stephens after the county district legal professional declined to prosecute her over campaign-finance allegations. She was once accused of tampering with a central authority document and accepting money contributions more than $100 throughout the 2016 election. Stephens had appealed the case to the Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals, the state’s perfect legal court docket, difficult the legal professional normal’s authority to pursue the case.

In December 2021, the all-Republican Courtroom of Felony Appeals sided with Stephens in an 8-1 ruling: The legal professional normal didn’t have the authority to unilaterally prosecute election crimes except requested to get entangled via a district or county legal professional.

Six days after the ruling, a district pass judgement on in Bandera County additionally disregarded Ramirez’s indictment.

“That are supposed to were the top of it,” Ramirez mentioned. “But it surely wasn’t.”

Paxton requested the Courtroom of Felony Appeals to rethink its opinion — and saved pursuing circumstances of election fraud.

Ramirez would quickly be told that the state’s attorneys had long gone to the district legal professional in close by Hondo, which is in Medina County and now not Bandera, to rate the pass judgement on there with the similar precise allegations.

“It was once a couple of week later that we discovered about it, and we have been surprised. We had no clue,” Ramirez mentioned. “I advised my attorneys about it and so they went, ‘What?’”

The bureaucracy seemed similar to the indictment that had simply been tossed, however it was once now not but an indictment, Ramirez mentioned; all that were filed was once a prison grievance and knowledge, paperwork that precede an indictment. Ramirez’s attorneys attempted to get the ones disregarded at the grounds that the statute of barriers, which is 3 years from the day an election crime allegedly came about, had already handed.

The allegations concerned a number one election that at that time were held nearly 4 years prior.

A 2d district pass judgement on, this time in Hondo, heard the case for roughly two hours prior to pushing aside the grievance and knowledge, Ramirez recounted.

“That was once Thursday, January 6. And via midday on that day, there have been no fees pending in opposition to me anyplace,” he mentioned. “I used to be loose.”

However that freedom lasted not up to an afternoon.

The following morning, a grand jury in Medina County indicted Ramirez at the identical fees that had already been disregarded two times via two other judges, in line with a duplicate of the indictment he shared.

In March 2022, greater than a 12 months for the reason that first indictment, a pass judgement on advised the events that the case must be disregarded, making an allowance for the new rulings within the Stephens case. However since Paxton’s place of job had requested for a rehearing prior to the Courtroom of Felony Appeals, the pass judgement on wrote in a understand that the court docket would push aside the indictment as soon as the upper civil court docket issued its subsequent mandate, assuming it didn’t exchange a lot from its previous one.

For Ramirez, it once more turned into a question of ready.

“The treatment is a constitutional modification”

9 judges sit down at the Courtroom of Felony Appeals, every elected to the seat. Lately all 9 are Republican. 8 of them concurred in December 2021 that the legal professional normal’s place of job may just now not unilaterally pursue legal circumstances.

In September, after reconsidering the subject at Paxton’s request, the court docket issued its 2d ruling. A majority of judges maintained the legal professional normal’s place of job may just now not pursue legal circumstances like voter fraud with out consent from native prosecutors. Doing another way would violate the state charter’s separation of powers.

After that ruling, the high-profile case in opposition to Hervis Rogers, who was once accused of voter fraud after ready six hours to vote throughout the March 2020 presidential number one whilst on parole, was once amongst 4 circumstances that experience additionally been disregarded.

Just one pass judgement on at the Courtroom of Felony Appeals shifted to dissenting in the second one ruling, which was once a 7-2 choice.

“If voters don’t like that the Texas Charter gave explicit powers to the Lawyer Basic and that those powers don’t come with the facility to unilaterally prosecute crimes, the treatment is a constitutional modification—one thing the legislature may just suggest and the voters may just vote to ratify,” Pass judgement on Scott Walker wrote in a concurring opinion. “The treatment isn’t for the courts to water down the Texas Charter from the bench. To take action can be a contravention of our judicial oath.”

Lawmakers are responding with legislative makes an attempt to provide Paxton’s place of job extra authority to prosecute crimes.

One invoice filed within the Texas Space would permit the place of job to nominate a distinct prosecutor for election crimes, and every other would let the place of job penalize native prosecutors who “prohibit election regulation enforcement.”

However one of the vital efforts to grant the legal professional normal’s place of job extra authority may just carry the similar questions of constitutionality from the Stephens case, mentioned Kumar, the legal professional on the ACLU of Texas. Converting the state charter, because the legal appeals court docket ruling urged, will require now not simply legislative approval, however a signoff from Texas citizens.

The lawmakers pushing the proposals contend the expenses would additional protected the state’s elections. The expenses come just about two years after lawmakers handed sweeping law that tightened state election regulations and constrained native keep an eye on of elections via proscribing counties’ skill to increase vote casting choices.

Different expenses now being regarded as would limit polling places on faculty campuses, and every other would reestablish unlawful vote casting as a prison, which is a concern of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

“All through Texas’ historical past, there’s been an effort to make vote casting more difficult and scarier for teams of people who the folks in energy don’t like,” mentioned Slattery of the Texas Civil Rights Undertaking, pointing to Reconstruction and Jim Crow regulations. “That trend has endured unabated to these days.”

Regardless of the efforts and a spotlight, voter fraud continues to be now not fashionable.

As for Ramirez, days after the Courtroom of Felony Appeals’ order in September, a Medina County pass judgement on disregarded the 3rd indictment in opposition to him.

By way of then, Ramirez were receiving fewer calls at his regulation place of job. The governing frame that oversees judges had prohibited him from sitting at the bench whilst the subject was once pending. He and his circle of relatives had gained threats at house.

He’s now again in his elected function as a justice of the peace. And whilst the prison clouds appear to have cleared, the ordeal has taken a toll.

“It clearly was once an enormous aid the primary time I were given disregarded, the second one time I were given disregarded and the 3rd time I were given disregarded,” he mentioned. “But it surely’s nonetheless a 12 months and a part, most certainly 19 months, of my existence that [I] truthfully want I didn’t have to move via.”

---

Disclosure: The State Bar of Texas and Texas Secretary of State were monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group this is funded partially via donations from participants, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a entire listing of them right here.

We will be able to’t wait to welcome you Sept. 21-23 to the 2023 Texas Tribune Pageant, our multiday birthday celebration of huge, daring concepts about politics, public coverage and the day’s information — all happening simply steps clear of the Texas Capitol. When tickets cross on sale in Would possibly, Tribune participants will save giant. Donate to sign up for or renew as of late.

This tale at the start gave the impression at the Texas Tribune. To learn this text in its unique structure, click on right here.